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I didn’t know shit about the man. Plus, I was late to the party. I didn’t even start paying attention to Steve and Apple until a few years ago. He was already uncomfortably skinny when I noticed him and when I started admiring Apple products. But today my Macbook Air and my iPhone are essential parts of my work. A single day without either of these devices and I will feel it heavily. Even so, I think I’m unqualified to talk about the guy and the company.
But here’s what I did last night: I worked on my novel on my Macbook Air. I told stories about my dead grandfather as he tried to survive as a poor immigrant in rural Georgia in 1938. Later in the night I reviewed my writing at a bar on my iPhone while drinking margaritas. I obviously thought about Steve Jobs as I did these things. But last week I did the same things and I didn’t think a damn thing about Steve Jobs.

Here is what I can tell you: These tools I use are amazing things in my life. I never stop appreciating them. They work in ways that I never before imagined and now can’t imagine being without. There is an emotion to using these tools. I don’t get where it comes from, but I love how these tools help me tell my dead grandfather’s story. They don’t write the story. But they somehow know how to slide out of the way so I can slip right into this hard-to-slip-into story.

How quickly I’ve grown to arrogantly expect these tools in my life. They are so much a part of my creative process.

And even though I don’t know exactly how, I know that Steve Jobs’ vision is a big part of what makes these things what they are.

I don’t know shit about the man, but these things he envisioned open doors for our stories to be told.